Xiao Fen's condition was worse than what happened by the river.
She was no longer just having nightmares or feeling something touching her; she was starting to hallucinate. Aunt Wang tearfully recounted that Xiao Fen kept seeing the shadow of a man in old-fashioned blue clothes, soaking wet, standing beside her bed, grinning at her with sharp, black teeth. Sometimes, even in broad daylight, she would suddenly scream at the air, saying the shadow was trying to drag her to the river.
Even more bizarrely, Xiao Fen began to emit a faint, fishy smell, like rotten river mud and weeds, that couldn't be washed off.
When I arrived, Xiao Fen was huddled in the corner of the bed, tightly wrapped in the blanket, her eyes unfocused, repeatedly muttering, "Don't pull me... I won't go... I won't go..." On her wrist, there was a faint, bluish-purple mark, like it had been strangled by weeds!
After examining her, my heart sank. This wasn't a simple case of being terrified or possessed; it was more like being "marked" or "cursed" by some kind of evil spirit in the water, similar to Liu Yan's situation, but seemingly more direct, more vicious, and more purposeful—to kill Xiao Fen, or to drag her down as a substitute.
"Cha Nan, what...what are we going to do?" Aunt Wang grabbed my arm, tears streaming down her face. "She's my only daughter-in-law. If anything happens to her, how can I face her family? How can I face my son in Africa?"
The village chief, standing nearby, also frowned deeply. "Cha Nan, Liu Yan's side has started causing trouble too. The incense ash isn't working. Today I discovered she was secretly tearing down the New Year's pictures on the wall, drawing crooked, grotesque things on them with her fingernails—it's really creepy. Could these two things...be related?"
I had the same suspicion. The hairball-shaped cursed object in the river, the mysterious parasitic entity on Liu Yan's body, and the clearly water-borne, deadly mark on Xiao Fen's body… they all carried a similar sticky, cold, and foul odor, and their targets were all young women in the village.
This could not be a coincidence. Behind it all, there was likely a dark hand manipulating things, its purpose unclear but extremely insidious.
"Aunt Wang, Village Chief, don't panic," I forced myself to calm down. "Sister-in-law Xiao Fen has been marked by something in the water. We need to find a way to stabilize her first, to prevent that thing from truly taking her soul. Sister-in-law Liu Yan… it's more complicated. I need time to prepare."
I first used cinnabar mixed with mugwort ash to draw an enhanced "Soul-Soothing and Spirit-Calming Array" around Xiao Fen's bed, and then drew soul-suppressing talismans on her forehead and palms. But this only temporarily isolated her from external interference; it wasn't a fundamental cure. The evil spirit in the water seemed to be able to exert its influence continuously through some kind of "medium."
"Aunt Wang, has Sister-in-law Xiaofen been in contact with anything unusual lately? Especially anything from the water, or given to her by someone else?" I asked.
Aunt Wang tried to recall, then shook her head. "No, ever since the accident by the river, I've been keeping a close eye on her. She basically doesn't go out, and I haven't seen anyone give her anything..."
"Water..." Xiaofen on the bed suddenly murmured, her eyes vacant, "Water...sent over..."
"What kind of water?" I quickly pressed.
"A few days ago... Sister Li...sent over a jar of pickled cabbage...said it was pickled with spring water from the back mountain, and that it was delicious..." Xiaofen said haltingly.
Sister Li? Li Xiulian? Another wife left behind while her husband was abroad.
My heart skipped a beat: "What about the pickled cabbage?"
"She...she ate some...the jar is still in the kitchen..."
I immediately rushed to the kitchen and, sure enough, saw a black ceramic pickling jar in the corner. The mouth of the jar was sealed with oil paper. I carefully opened the seal, and a strong, strangely fishy sour smell wafted out! This was definitely not the normal smell of pickled cabbage!
I shone my flashlight into the jar. In the murky brine, besides the pickled cabbage, there seemed to be a few dark, hair-like or seaweed-like things floating around, faintly wriggling!
"That's it!" My scalp tingled. I immediately grabbed some fire tongs and carried the jar, along with its contents, to an open area in the yard. Then I drew a talisman, lit a pile of firewood, and threw the entire jar in.
The flames licked at the black earthenware jar, making a strange "sizzling" sound, as if something alive was struggling. A plume of black smoke, carrying a foul stench, shot into the sky. After burning for a full half hour, the jar shattered, and its contents turned into a pile of charred ashes.
Strangely enough, after the jar burned, Xiaofen seemed to be in better condition inside the house. Her eyes were clearer, and she murmured, "That wet shadow... seems a bit farther away."
It really was a medium! Someone had cast a curse by sending something!
"Li Xiulian!" Aunt Wang trembled with rage. "That heartless bastard! I've never wronged her, why would she harm my Xiaofen! I'm going to find her!" She turned to rush out.
"Aunt Wang! Don't rush!" I stopped her. "If you go to her now, she'll definitely deny it. Besides, I suspect she's not the only one."
I thought of the other aunties who had come to me for "consultation" before. Aunt Liu, Zhang Cai'e, and several others… there seemed to be some kind of connection between them. Could it be…?
"Village Chief," I turned to the village chief, "Could you please quietly invite Aunt Liu, Zhang Cai'e, and Zhao Xiaomei, the daughter-in-law of the Zhao family who's close to Li Xiulian, to my house? Tell them… tell them I have some good news about the 'lucky charm,' but it must be kept secret. Come together. Be careful not to let Li Xiulian know."
Although the village chief was suspicious, seeing my serious expression, he nodded and went.
I told Aunt Wang to take care of Xiaofen first, and I hurried home to prepare. This matter must be thoroughly investigated.
Not long after, Aunt Liu, Zhang Cai'e, and Zhao Xiaomei quietly arrived at my house one after another. They were all surprised and embarrassed to see each other.
"Cha Nan, why did you call us all here? What good news is it?" Aunt Liu spoke first, her eyes glancing towards the inner room where I kept my ritual implements.
Zhang Cai'e and Zhao Xiaomei also looked at me curiously.
I asked them to sit down, closed the door, and my face darkened. "Aunties and sisters-in-law, I called you here today not because of any good news, but because of something terrible that concerns your lives. I need to get to the bottom of this."
The three of them paled.
"You've heard about Xiao Fen, haven't you?" I asked directly.
Aunt Liu nodded and sighed, "I heard about it. Poor thing, they say she was haunted by a water ghost."
"It's not just a simple ghost encounter," I said, staring at them. "Someone cursed her by sending her food! That jar of pickled vegetables, it was Li Xiulian who sent it!"
"What?!" Zhang Cai'e exclaimed, "Xiulian? She...how could she do such a thing?"
Zhao Xiaomei's face paled, and she lowered her head.
I noticed her unusual expression and slowly said, "Sister-in-law Xiaomei, do you know something? Has Li Xiulian given you anything unusual lately? Or dragged you into doing anything unusual?"
Zhao Xiaomei trembled, raised her head, her eyes filled with panic, "I...I don't know..."
"Xiaomei!" Zhang Cai'e exclaimed anxiously, "What time is it now? If Xiulian really did something heinous, are you still covering for her? You might be the next victim! Or even us!"
Aunt Liu also chimed in, " "Yes, Xiaomei, just say what's wrong. Cha Nan is very capable; he can help us."
Zhao Xiaomei bit her lip, struggling for a while before finally saying in a tearful voice, "I...I said...Sister Xiulian...she came to see me a while ago, and...and Sister Cai'e, Aunt Liu, you probably don't know."
Zhang Cai'e was taken aback: "Saw me? What did she want? She didn't bring me any pickled cabbage."
"It wasn't pickled cabbage..." Zhao Xiaomei's voice lowered even further, "She...she gave Sister Cai'e and me each a small red cloth bag, and inside were..." "It was like it contained something, and she told us to secretly put it under our pillows by the bedside. She said it was a 'love charm' obtained from a master from out of town, meant to keep our men from thinking about other women and only about home..."
Zhang Cai'e's face changed drastically: "What red cloth bag? When did she give it to me? How come I didn't know?"
"Just last month, the day you came back from the market in town, she said she came to borrow shoe patterns from you, and secretly slipped it under your pillow when you weren't looking... She told me not to tell you, saying that if too many people knew about the charm, it wouldn't work..." Zhao Xiaomei finished speaking, covered her face, and started crying, "I... how was I supposed to know it was something harmful! I just wanted my deadbeat husband to stay away from those shady places..."
Zhang Cai'e trembled with anger and turned to rush out: "I'm going back to look for it!"
"Wait!" I called after her, "Don't alert her. If it really is that kind of evil 'charm,' moving it around might cause more trouble. You two, take me to see that cloth bag right now!"
We went to Zhao Xiaomei's house, the nearest one. Sure enough, under her pillow, I found a small red cloth bag, about the size of a palm, bound with red thread. It was cold to the touch and emitted a faint, fishy smell, very similar to the smell from Xiao Fen's sauerkraut jar!
I didn't dare open it directly. I wrapped it in a talisman and sealed it in an empty jar.
I rushed to Zhang Cai'e's house. She searched under her own pillow and found an identical small red cloth bag!
Looking at these two eerie little cloth bags, along with Xiao Fen's jar of sauerkraut, the situation was clear. Li Xiulian was secretly targeting the women left behind in the village! She was using insidious and evil methods, with different mediums (sauerkraut, cloth bags), but the purpose was probably the same—to use these women's vital energy, souls, and even lives to nourish or achieve some ulterior motive!
"Li Xiulian! Her husband is abroad too, why is she harming us?" Aunt Liu asked, both shocked and furious.
"I'm afraid… her man being abroad is her 'protective shield' or 'reason'," I analyzed. "She might be controlled by something, or… made a deal with something, using the 'resources' of other women in the village to exchange for some 'benefits' of herself, like making her man rich? Safe? Or… gaining some kind of 'power'?"
I thought of the evil object on Liu Yan that called her "my man," and the obviously concocted hairball water ghost in the river. Where did Li Xiulian, an ordinary rural woman, get these methods? There must be a deeper hand behind her!
"Cha Nan, what should we do now?" Zhang Caie held the red cloth bag, her hands trembling. "We…we might have already…"
"Don't be afraid," I reassured them. "Now that we've discovered it, there's a way. These cloth bags, like the sauerkraut jar, are mediums. I'll seal them first, temporarily cutting off the connection. But the root of the problem lies with Li Xiulian and what's behind her. We must know what she's doing and what her purpose is."
"Then…should we arrest her and question her?" Aunt Liu said.
"No, that would alert her. What if she gets desperate and does something rash, or what's behind her comes out? That would be even more troublesome." I shook my head. "We need a plan."
Looking at the three women before me, both frightened and angry, an idea suddenly popped into my head. Going it alone, I was outnumbered. But what if… we united them? They were the victims, and also the ones who knew the village best, the least likely to be suspected.
"Aunties and sisters-in-law," I said seriously, "you all see the situation now. Someone is hiding in the shadows, using evil magic to harm the women in our village. Today it's Xiaofen, tomorrow it could be any one of you, or a member of your family. I can't defend myself alone. I think… could we join forces?"
"Join forces? How?" Zhao Xiaomei looked up, her eyes filled with tears.
"Let's set up a… 'Mutual Aid Association,'" I suggested on the spot. "The three of you, plus Aunt Wang (Grandma Xiaofen), will be our core members for now. Keep an eye on Li Xiulian's movements, look after each other, and tell me immediately if you notice anything unusual. I'll teach you some simple ways to identify evil spirits and protect yourselves, such as how to identify strange food or objects, and how to set up a simple warding-off-evil formation."
The three women looked at each other, their eyes gradually shifting from fear to determination. Especially Zhang Cai'e, having experienced the Kitchen God incident, trusted me more and nodded first: "I'll join! I can't let her harm anyone else!"
Aunt Liu gritted her teeth and said, "Count me in! For my husband, and for myself!"
Zhao Xiaomei wiped away her tears and nodded vigorously: "I'll join too! I... I want to atone for my sins, I shouldn't have kept it from everyone..."
"Good!" I looked at them, "Then from now on, we are the first members of the 'Left-Behind Women's Mutual Aid Association.' Remember, everything must be done secretly, especially keeping it from Li Xiulian. We'll start by protecting ourselves and those around us."
I sealed the two red cloth packages with layers of talisman paper and buried them together with the previous Zhongshan-style ceramic jar. Then, I simply taught them how to use salt, mugwort, and copper coins (or coins if you don't have those) to set up the simplest exorcism corner, and how to judge whether something evil was approaching by observing the abnormalities of livestock (especially dogs and chickens).
After seeing them off, I watched their hurried departure into the night, feeling a little more at ease. Although the road ahead remains treacherous, at least I'm no longer fighting alone.
This newly formed secret "mutual aid society," comprised of myself and several other young women left behind in rural areas, is like a faint flame in the darkness. Though small, it might illuminate the way forward and... provide warmth?
I rubbed my throbbing temples. Liu Yan, Xiao Fen, Li Xiulian, the water ghost in the river, the mastermind behind it all... this tangled mess seems to have been untangled by the establishment of the "mutual aid society."
Next, I need to find a way to expose the shadow hiding behind Li Xiulian. And the "mutual aid society" is my best eyes and ears.
However, watching Zhang Cai'e's slightly plump figure as she left, Aunt Liu's expectant eyes, and Zhao Xiaomei's pitiful appearance... my responsibility as the "chairperson" seems to be more than just exorcising evil spirits.
Sigh, this curse of romantic entanglements is truly everywhere.